In recent days, Brigham Young University ejected a fan from a volleyball game after he was falsely accused of screaming a racial epithet -- the 'n-word' -- at an opposing player from Duke University, according to The Western Journal.
The BYU athletic department posted a statement to Twitter last week saying that officials had identified the fan who supposedly used the epithet, adding that the fan had subsequently been permanently banned from all of the university's sporting events.
“When a student-athlete or a fan comes to a BYU sporting event, we expect that they will be treated with love and respect and feel safe on our campus,” the statement noted. “It is for this reason BYU has banned a fan who was identified by Duke during last night’s volleyball match from all BYU athletic venues.”
The university went on to say that the fan was not a student of the school but was nonetheless seated in the student section, the outlet reported further.
Official statement from BYU Athletics. pic.twitter.com/5bIwXNwr7J
— BYU Cougars (@BYUCougars) August 27, 2022
However, within days of the BYU statement, the Salt Lake City Tribune reported that things are not what they appeared to be. BYU Police Lt. George Besendorfer told the newspaper that he did not believe at all that the fan identified as having yelled the slur was guilty.
“When we watched the video, we did not observe that behavior from him,” Besendorfer told the paper.
The Western Journal added:
Duke sophomore Rachel Richardson said she “very distinctly” heard a “very strong and negative racial slur” while serving in the match on Friday, the Tribune reported.
While BYU did not directly dispute the allegation, the university said the fan identified by Duke as the offender appeared to be innocent.
“Various BYU Athletics employees have been reviewing video from BYUtv and other cameras in the facility that the volleyball team has access to for film review,” BYU Associate Athletic Director Jon McBride told the Salt Lake City Trib.
“This has been ongoing since right after the match on Friday night. The person who was banned was the person identified by Duke as using racial slurs. However, we have been unable to find any evidence of that person using slurs in the match," McBride continued.
The entire accusation was another race-based hate hoax, in other words. Once again, People of Color are playing the victim and inventing false smears against themselves in order to try to play the race card.
The Western Journal explained further that this case of mistaken identity occurs far too many times in our leftist-driven hyper-sensitive culture:
This apparent mistake shows the danger of believing allegations on the surface without waiting for details to substantiate them. Sadly, this practice has become all too common in the United States.
Especially in the context of racism or hate crimes, many Americans are afraid of the backlash they will receive if they question allegations of racism made by a minority. As a result, they blindly believe the allegations are 100 percent true, often before taking the time to investigate them.
In other words, for certain 'offenses,' we are considered guilty by the left until proven innocent, which is 180 degrees opposite of our founding legal principle -- the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
Now, if someone did yell a racial slur at Richardson, then of course that person should be identified and held responsible. But that said, the university's own review of the situation has not turned up any conclusive evidence on anyone who attended the volleyball game in question.
"If BYU had taken time to investigate the allegations before banning the fan, they could have saved both themselves and the fan from embarrassment. Instead, they decided to take action against the fan before the details were clear, and that action now appears to have been unjust," The Western Journal noted.
Spot-on.
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